Fifth Estate Collective
Fifth Estate Collective
“Harry the Rat” at Court
The Court Theatre will begin its third season with revivals of two successful productions—HARRY THE RAT WITH WOMEN and OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR.
“Harry the Rat with Women” is an adaptation of the Jules Feiffer novel of the same name. It is the biography of Harry, the beautiful and narcissistic youth who is corrupted and eventually de oyed by the society which forces him to accept love and involvement on its terms.
Dec 20, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Harsh Sentences in Toronto
In a decision that outraged the Toronto anarchist community, Ken Deyarmond was sentenced to six months in jail for assaulting two cops during a demonstration in September 1983 against British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Deyarmond was grabbed by pig Dusko Markovic during the demonstration for “lunging” at Thatcher and during the resulting fracas, as Ken tried to squirm free, he was manhandled by three cops.
Sep 7, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hate Cars!
from The Eighth Night of Creation: Life on the Edge of Human History by Jerome Deshusses
Today there is no city that the automobile has not turned into a vast parking lot, no avenue that is not a rectilinear traffic artery bordered by concrete sidewalks and strips of sickly, dying dusty, grayish grass. It will soon be impossible for people to talk to each other in the street except by walkie-talkie, impossible to breathe except high up in the mountains (where the air is only a little less toxic than elsewhere, and cars will soon be as numerous as tourists, anyway), impossible to cross a lane without thinking of the danger of being run down and killed, impossible to regard other human beings as other than so many Sunday mechanics mucking about underneath the artificial armor of their coachwork....
Dec 22, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hate Mao; Hate Maoists
Chinese State Destroys Paint Bomber
A Chinese journalist was freed in February after spending nearly 17 years in prison for splattering paint on a portrait of Mao during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Yu Dongyue, now 38, and two friends, hurled eggs filled with red paint at the famous painting of Mao, which still stares at the Square from across the street. Yu and his family are expected to reunite in Hunan Province, but his younger brother said the family was deeply concerned about Yu’s mental health.
Apr 26, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Have a Wild Summer!
1995 Summer Gatherings & Actions
Through September 2
A traveling RV-gypsy gathering that will join with local people in 14 cities across North America to create temporary autonomous zones, make art, cook food, establish squats, play music, celebrate, & protest. For a complete list of cities, call Arrow at 212/ 614–0393 or write: 209 E. 7th St., NY, NY:
Apr 18, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Liberation News Service
Heavy Time in Pig City
Report from Chicago
CHICAGO—Hundreds of SDS members, responding to two separate calls, moved in the streets of Chicago and braved police gunfire on several occasions in the opening days of the Oct. 8–11 action against U. S. imperialism.
On the first night four hundred young people, mostly members of SDS’s prominent Weatherman faction—wearing helmets and carrying sticks—charged through Chicago’s fashionable Gold Coast district, smashing left and right the windows of stores, banks, cars, apartments and hotels.
Jul 25, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
HELL NO!
DETROIT Nov. 14—In a joyous celebration at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, eight men returned their draft cards to the Selective Slavery System, including the pastor of the church.
In breaking their ties with the draft the men stated, “Young men are being forced to choose between being free to celebrate their existence and being forced to engage in acts of destruction. We choose freedom, life, and the joy involved in being true to ourselves.”
Mar 28, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hell No, They Won’t Go
On October 16, young men in Detroit and in cities across the United States will have turned in their draft cards to federal officials.
In Detroit, at least 20 men are expected to take part in the actual resistance at Cadillac Tower in Downtown Detroit, site of the Selective Service System while a support demonstration will take place outside beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Nov 30, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Help Sustain the Fifth Estate
The Fifth Estate needs a minimum of forty persons willing to pledge $5.00 a month to insure this paper’s survival and increase our ability to do such things as enlarge page size or do special issue supplements. A long rap probably won’t convince you one way or the other about whether or not the paper is worthwhile to maintain—either you like it and that makes it worth five bucks a month or you don’t. (By the way, this isn’t meant to be a guilt trip—we know some people just cannot afford a monthly sum like that.) Fifth Estate sustainers will receive a free publication each month as well as free admission to all FE events such as benefits and film showings. If you can help us, mail this coupon and we’ll contact you next month.
Aug 6, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Help the Black Panther Party
The Detroit Black Panther Party has just opened up a new office and asked the community to aid them in securing needed supplies.
If you have desks, typewriters or other office machines available they can be put to immediate use in aiding the work of the Panthers.
If you can help or wish to make a donation to the Panthers contact the Fifth Estate office, 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, 48201 or call 831–6800.
Jun 14, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Help the Fifth Estate Expansion Fund
The Fifth Estate is not reaching everyone that it should. Conservative distributors and frightened merchants will not handle or sell the paper because it is too controversial. Hence, there are many people who are not able to read what we have to say simply because there is nowhere they can buy the paper.
Jan 29, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Help the oldest anarchist ‘zine in America stay young!
The FE HQ in rural Tennessee seeks volunteers and interns for extended visits of one to three months.
Help maintain our Bistro. Participate in every aspect of magazine production. Learn new skills and meet interesting people. Live in a rural intentional community.
Applicants must be willing to live rustically, pay for own expenses, and share basic chores. Please submit letter of introduction with writing samples and activist references.
Jul 16, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Highland Park Draft Center Wins Victory
The Draft Resistance Committee has pulled off a minor victory in an attempt to stop some of the harassment directed at it by landlords, vigilantes, and the City of Highland Park. (See Fifth Estate, Sept. 15–30).
On Sept. 22, the Committee brought their landlord, Tom Jewell into the Circuit Court room of Judge Carl Weideman in an attempt to keep Jewell out of the groups storefront headquarters at 12820 Hamilton. Jewell had entered the building several times and had torn down signs and done other damage.
Apr 7, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
High School Bill of Rights
I. STUDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXERCISE ALL RIGHTS ENUMERATED IN THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND ALL OTHER AMENDMENTS AND THOSE ESTABLISHED BY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT.
II. STUDENTS HAVE THE FULL FREEDOM OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS.
Dec 10, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
High School Strike Set
Detroit area high school students will protest the war in Vietnam and commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King in a student strike on April 3rd.
April 4th marks one year since the assassination of Dr. King, who was an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam and an active participant in the antiwar movement.
Sep 25, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
High School Students Split
As part of the April 26 Student Strike against the Vietnam War, hundreds of high school students from the metropolitan area walked out of school or protested by other means.
At Cass Technical High School, which draws students from the entire city and beyond, 300 walked out at 9:30 under the direction of the Cass Afro-American Club and the Detroit High School Student Mobilization Committee. An undeterminable number of other students stayed in school wearing black armbands, which were distributed by DHSSMC.
Dec 10, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
High School Underground Meets
A conference for high school underground publications has been set up. All high school students working on publications or interested in starting underground papers are invited.
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss all aspects of establishing a paper, and compare experiences for the benefit of other papers. It would be beneficial if those people who are already printing a paper would bring copies with them.
Apr 29, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
High Sheriff: A Down
Editors’ Note: Roman Gribbs is Sheriff of Wayne County and candidate for mayor of Detroit. Part of his attempt to sell himself to the people of our city has been on the basis of his role in reforming the Wayne County Jail, which is his responsibility.
Long a chamber of horrors, the Sheriff has been able to enlist the cooperation of Detroit’s two daily papers to create an illusion that his dungeon has become a fit place for humans to inhabit due to his work.
Aug 1, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hilberry Theatre Fall Program
Five new productions, including three classics and two contemporary plays, will be featured at the Hilberry Classic Theatre during its Wayne State University Centennial season of repertory.
A revival of last year’s record-breaking success, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” will be performed in the fall.
Mar 4, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
History of Women’s Day
On March 8 in 1857 hundreds of women textile workers marched from a poor, working-class district on the Lower East Side of New York City to a wealthy area nearby. They were demonstrating against poor working conditions, low wages, and a 60-hour work week, and demanding equality for all women. They were dispersed by the police who “were just protecting property.” Many women were trampled and arrested.
Sep 7, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
History Quiz
Name:
Please choose the best answer for the following questions.
a. was a stool pigeon for the FBI and the anti-communist witch-hunters of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating the film industry.
b. told a major California newspaper: “It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.”
Jun 14, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Ho Chi Minh
Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom
The series of brief poems which make up the Prison Diary—his one and only, his precious book of poetry—were written by Ho Chi Minh between August 29, 1942, and September 10, 1943, during a journey which he describes in one of his poems in these words: “I have travelled the thirteen districts of Kwangsi Province, and tasted the pleasures of eighteen different prisons.”
Jul 19, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hold the pickle, Hold your fire
(mock ad for Burger King)
B.K. Brings You the All New SELF-BURGER!!!
A new feature at our inner-city Burger King allows you, the customer, to come through our doors in search of a hamburger and take a chance on becoming hamburger yourself! Continuing our policy of giving random surprises to our customers, Burger King regional supervisor Dan Dilldy hired an armed guard equipped with a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
May 2, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hong Kong’s Black Book Fair
Under China’s Radar
Hong Kong’s Black Book Fair took place November 17–19, 2017 in the lecture theatre of the Visual Arts Centre, close to the Admiralty area where the Umbrella Movement was ignited by a police attack on demonstrators three years earlier.
Mar 12, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
House Hits SDS
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LNS)—Hearings on SDS will be held this month by the House Internal Securities Committee, the College Press Service reported.
Committee Chairman Richard Ichord said that the investigation has been going on for nearly three months. The Committee is looking over its large library of SDS literature and other leftist material.
Apr 3, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
How to Get Your History On
The 40 year history of Fifth Estate is not the easiest thing to access for research purposes. The best source is the massive Underground Press Collection, a 500+ reel microfilm archive of periodicals from 1963 to 1985. Almost 100 libraries, mostly university-based, in the US have part or all of this series, and the FEs from these dates are contained within, although the image quality can be poor. Pro-Quest, an online journal service which some libraries subscribe to, contains electronic full-text FE articles from 1996 On. But if you don’t have a university affiliation, it may be difficult to use these resources, although some public libraries may have access to them. Talk to your local public library’s reference desk about what options you have; sometimes articles can be accessed by Interlibrary Loan (ILL), and occasionally special passes can be arranged to university collections. Of course, persuading local students to lend you an ID may be the easiest route!
Mar 16, 2014 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
HUAC and The Peace Movement!
SEE...
HUAC AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT!
Students for a Democratic Society present a...
RIGHT-WING FILM PHANTASMAGORIA
Featuring
“While Brave Men Die...”
Brand new film depicting control of anti-war movement by criminal conspiracy.
SEE Army troop trains blocked... Marches on Washington... unlimited civil disobedience, and more...
Apr 16, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Huey Convicted in Oakland
Huey must be set free!
The Black Panthers have begun a campaign for the immediate admission to bail of their Minister of Defense, Huey P. Newton, who was convicted Sept. 8th of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death, Oct. 28th of last year, of an Oakland, California policeman.
Eldridge Cleaver, Panther Minister of Information and Peace and Freedom Party candidate for President, said in San Francisco, that the verdict in the eight week trial was “totally unacceptable...a compromise verdict,” and stated that petitions were being prepared for circulation demanding that Newton be allowed to post bond.
Sep 1, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Huey’s Lawyer Here
Charles Garry, attorney for Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense, will speak in Detroit at 8 p.m., Friday, October 18, at McGregor Hall on Wayne’s campus.
The occasion is a conference sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild on political defense.
The Newton trial, in significant contrast to the Spock Trial, was an important example of the use of a trial as a political forum, means of exposure, and organizing focus for movement politics. While exploiting all opportunities for legal and factual defenses, Garry relentlessly exposed the racist practices of the Oakland Police in particular, and racist nature of the judicial system and American society in general.
Jun 10, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Human Be-In
Coming event
A Human Be-In in the Flint area will happen on Sunday, May 21, from 10 a.m. until dusk at the Byram Lake park outside of Linden, Michigan. Organized by Trans-Love Energies of Flint, the Be-In will take place in a 60-acre park area 20 miles from Flint and will last all day, with music, fun, food, bells, and banners.
Apr 21, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Hungary ’56
Ideology destroyed, the proletariat armed
Thirteen years ago the Hungarian people, led by the Budapest working class, launched an attack on the ruling police state. In the process, the despotism of the state was briefly eliminated and councils of workers emerged, signaling a dramatic break with the old life and posed a genuine alternative for the future. This spark of revolution was crushed only by the intervention of Russian tanks and after weeks of heroic resistance. Those moments in 1956 exist not as memories of defeat, but as a beacon for what is possible.
Aug 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
“I Am Tom Sincavitch”
The scene is a church located in the heart of Detroit’s Inner City.
A small army of some 40 agents of the State roar up to the church, force their way in, and demand a man named Tom Sincavitch.
About 43 young men, all wearing nametags reading: “I am Tom Sincavitch,” identify themselves as the wanted man.
Sep 21, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
American Civil Liberties Union
If You Are Arrested
(Clip out and Save)
If you are stopped by the police, or arrested, whether you are guilty or not, you have the same rights. You can protect these rights best if you use this information.
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You may remain silent; you do not have to answer any questions other than your name and address.
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The police may search you for weapons by patting the outside of your clothing.
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Whatever happens, you must not resist arrest even if you are innocent.
Apr 10, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Impeach Clinton
...for his crimes against the people of Iraq, not for some stupid sex scandal
Clinton’s US/UN imposed sanctions have already killed 10 percent of the Iraq population. 1.5 million people are dead which includes 6000 children who die monthly. The economic sanctions are weapons of mass destruction. They are a crime against humanity that have served to strengthen Hussein, weakened his opposition, and failed to force him to comply with UN resolutions.
Jan 20, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In Brief
Last March 23 to 25, the Italian police made a nation-wide raid on the homes and offices of anarchists and arrested 19 people and charged them with armed rebellion, subversive association with the clandestine group Azione Rivoluzionaria (Revolutionary Action) and the robberies of six banks in Bologna. Since that time, seven of the people have been released, but the other twelve remain behind bars—they are: Alfredo Bonnano, Carmelina Di Marco, Salvo Marietta, Paolo Ruberto, Patrizia Casamenti, Masstmo Gaspari, France Lombardi, Roccard Fabbricat, Sandre Vandini and two Scots, Jean Weir and Kenneth Burgone (both associated with the publishing group Bratach Dubh).
Dec 13, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In case of...
American Civil Liberties Union: 961–4462
Ad Hoc Citizens Committee, Police Brutality Complaints: 872–2828
Creem Magazine: 831–0816
Draft Resistance, info on counseling 874–4334
Detroit Anti-war Coalition: 873–4322
Fifth Estate Office: 831–6800
Fire Department: 962–0400
Grape Boycott Office: 825–4811
Sep 9, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In case of...
Resource list
American Civil Liberties Union, 961–4662
Ad Hoc Citizens Committee, 923–0610
Centerhouse Switchboard, 399–9090
Community Reporter, 833–5085
Detroit Anti-War Coalition, 874–4410
Fifth Estate Offices, 831–6800
(Distribution Centers, KOTC, 831–1574)
Fire Department, 962–0400
Gay Liberation, 923–7749
Sep 10, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In Case Of
American Civil Liberties Union 961–4662
Ad Hoc Citizens Committee (Police Brutality Complaints) 872–2828
Creem Magazine 831–0816
Detroit Anti-war Coalition 873–4322
Fifth Estate Office 831–6800
Fire Department 962–0400
Grape Boycott Office 825–4811
Metro 832–5126
Newsreel 833–7885
Open City 831–2770
Dec 2, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In Case Of...
American Civil Liberties Union: 961–4662
Ad Hoc Citizens Committee (Police Brutality Complaints): 872–2828
Creem Magazine: 831–0816
Draft Resistance (info on counseling): 874–4334
Detroit Anti-war Coalition: 873–4322
Fifth Estate Office: 831–6800
Fire Department: 962–0400
Grape Boycott Office: 825–4811
Oct 1, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In Case Of...
American Civil Liberties Union 961–4662
Ad Hoc Citizens Committee (Police Brutality Complaints) 872–2828
Creem Magazine 831–0816
Draft Resistance (info on counseling) 874–4334
Detroit Anti-war Coalition 873–4322
Fifth Estate Office 831–6800
Fire Department 962–0400
Grape Boycott Office 825–4811
May 19, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Alvin Harrison
Inciting A Riot
On August 9–12 a fantasy now known as the “East Side Riot” was staged by the Detroit Police with the assistance of the prosecutor’s office, city government and the press. The major villain of the drama was Alvin Harrison, Director of the Afro-American Unity Movement and spokesman for Black Power. Below is The Fifth Estate’s interview with Mr. Harrison.
Apr 25, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Infoshop, Gallery, & Mail Order
BOOKSTORE IN A BARN
(615) 536–5999
an hour east of Nashville; call, write, or email for directions
FifthEstate@pumpkinhollow.net
Read more
WORDS
Dr. Ben Reitman, Sister of the Road: the Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha (2002) $15.00
Dark Star
Beneath the Paving Stones (2001) $15.00
Hakim Bey
Immediatism (1992) $10.00
Jul 16, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In memoriam Malcolm X
February 21st marked the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Black America’s hero, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (known to many as Malcolm X).
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925, Malcolm quickly learned the bitter taste of white racism. His mother was born as the result of her mother’s rape by a white planter (thus giving Malcolm his light complexion and red hair).
Aug 20, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Innu People Resist NATO
Canada is illegally renting out the territory of the Innu people to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries so that their bombers can practice bombing and surprise attacks. The establishment of a permanent NATO base could be announced soon. [see FE note at end of article]
The Innu people (sometimes called the Montagnais or the Naskapi) refer to their ancestral territories as the Nitassinan, literally our land, in their native language. The area was never ceded by treaty or otherwise by the original inhabitants. The presence of the Innu in this remote part of the world goes back at least 9,000 years. This area extends from Sept-Iles, to Lac St. Jean, Quebec, to the west; to Fort Cains, Quebec, to the north; and down to St. Augustine, Quebec, and Goose Bay, Labradore, to the east.
Aug 15, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Inside the FE
FIFTH ESTATE #366, Fall, 2004, Vol. 39, No. 3
News, etc. pages 2 — 11
Features on “unschooling the world” pages 12 — 45
Letters to the FE pages 46 — 49
Reviews, etc. pages 50 — 53
Bookstore & Calendar pages 54 — 55
May 31, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
International Days of Chalking
Activists in Brattleboro, Vt. are calling for an International Day of Chalking Against State Violence, on Saturday, June 3. Autonomous actions with no central coordination; just get your chalks, go out by yourself or with others, and chalk about war, racism, police killings, prisons, sexual assaults or other issues.
Jan 27, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
International Days of Protest
The Second Time Around
On Friday, March 25, the first of three INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF PROTEST, there will be activities on the Wayne Campus highlighted by a rally against the war in Vietnam. This will take place on the mall.
Such Universities as Oakland and University of Michigan will also be the site of anti-war demonstrations. The Citizens for Peace in Vietnam will carry on neighborhood activities.
Jan 29, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
International Days of Protest
Against the War in Vietnam, March 25 — 26
Schedule
Friday, March 25: At 6:30 P.M. the Wayne State University
Young Democrats are sponsoring a forum on the war in Vietnam in the community Arts Auditorium, Cass and Kirby.
Saturday, March 26: At 4:00 P.M. a mass march will start down Woodward from Central -Methodist Church at Adams and Woodward. We will march to Campus Martius carrying signs, banners, and giant grotesque puppets to the beat of death drums.
Dec 26, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Interview: A Soldier in Vietnam
Bruce Whitten, age 26, held the rank of Staff Sergeant in the Air Force until he received a general discharge on May 23, 1965. Whitten was assigned to the First Air Commando group and spent two years in Vietnam.
Q. How do the people feel about the governments that have been set up?
A. They don’t even discuss them. It just seems to be a taboo subject. You don’t speak to an Englishmen about the Queen in a sexual manner and it’s like that here. You’ll get your throat cut. I never got anywhere discussing that subject.
Feb 10, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Interview with Abbie
Grippies plan Hot Reception for 1980 Republican and Democratic Conventions
Abbie Hoffman, fugitive Yippie, has been on the lam for over three years following a New York City cocaine deal set-up by the police. Abbie has had plastic surgery to alter his appearance and has managed to elude the authorities even while popping up at protest demonstrations, rallies held in his behalf and he once even appeared as the guest chef on a Toronto TV cooking program.
Sep 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In The On-Deck Circle
The authoritarian, proto-fascist religious cults such as the Moonies, Krishna Consciousness and the People’s Temple have always thrived at the fringes of what was once called the “counter-culture” and which is today euphemistically referred to as “New Age” consciousness—a catch-all of Asian mysticism, macrobiotics, herbalist faddism, palmistry, “holistic” products-mongering, meditation, pop psychology and other obscurantist effluvia.
Aug 25, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
In Toronto
Harassment Continues
TORONTO—Although the Vancouver 5 trials are over except for that of Brent Taylor on charges of bombing Litton Industries (see accompanying article), the support group here is still dealing with the aftermath of extensive police harassment.
Ken Deyarmond, one of the more active supporters, was to go on trial Nov. 13 for “attempted assault against an internationally protected person” who, in this case, was British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Deyarmond was participating in a demonstration against Thatcher’s visit to Toronto organized by IRA supporters and anti-Cruise groups when he was pushed from behind towards the prime minister and then grabbed and punched by three cops. (See FE #317, Summer 1984.)
Aug 29, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Into the ‘70s
On January 22 the usually quiet and staid University of Detroit joined the ‘70s as police arrested 17 students who were protesting the presence of a Navy recruiter on campus.
The students, who began a non-violent, non-disruptive sit-in at the University’s Placement Center, refused to leave when ordered to by Dean for Student Affairs, Fred Shadrick. Then, as the headline of the U-D Varsity News put it, “Fred Calls Cops” and the Tactical Mobile Unit, a police riot bus and a paddy wagon took the students away.
Oct 1, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction
Welcome to the first FE of 2003!
One year ago, when the Tennessee Collective stepped up to take over primary editorial responsibilities for the Fifth Estate, many of us were discouraged and disillusioned by the dreadful lack of public opposition to empire in the weeks and months following 9/11. One year ago, when we wrote about “the emergence of a mass-based movement...contesting the state and capital,” it was speculation. Today, the mass-based anti-war movement that boldly connects the dots between corporate tyranny and its bloodbaths is here.
Jun 21, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction
With the defeat of the White Christian Nationalist Party in the U.S. presidential election, liberals and progressives are understandably relieved that the politics of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and the rest of the right-wing panoply were rejected by American voters, even if only by a fairly small percentage. We share that sense, but hold no illusions about the second term of Barack Obama containing any possibility for authentic hope or change, or even mild reform.
Apr 14, 2013 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction
“When I pronounce the word civilization, I spit.”
—Gauguin
We are all trapped within the technological labyrinth, and at its center awaits our annihilation. We have already lost more than we can imagine to civilization’s insatiable hunger for power and uniformity. We live in the shadow of an enormous edifice, a monstrosity which teeters and threatens to collapse upon us in a moment. We sing, make love, struggle and despair amid its decomposing limbs. But the smell of decomposition is general. We are in eclipse; the human spirit is moribund.
Jul 4, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction to Anti-Marx Section
Inside the walled compound of a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan, the monks who reside there have created a meditation garden consisting of raked sand and about a dozen large stones. The stones are adroitly arranged so that no matter where one stands on the perimeter of the garden, at least one of the rocks is blocked from sight of the viewer. The Zen wisdom behind this arrangement suggests that the world in all of its aspects is never completely knowable; that something always remains hidden.
Mar 13, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction to Fifth Estate Issue 374
Welcome to the New York City issue of Fifth Estate. The editorship of the magazine now rotates, and two of us in NYC have stepped in to give the peops in Detroit and Tennessee a rest (making this the first issue in 41 years that has been produced in the northeast!). The people that put out this publication have a variety of views and backgrounds (we range in age from our 20s to 70s, and live across North America); this issue reflects our reality and issues here in NYC.
Feb 28, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Introduction to “The Myth of the Party”
The article appearing on the following two pages, “The Myth of the Party,” by Murray Bookchin (from his essay “Listen Marxist”) was first excerpted in FE #272, May 1976. We reprint it hoping it will be of interest to a new generation of anti-war and social activists who find themselves beset by the return of the living dead—marxist-leninist parties.
Nov 15, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Intro to May ’68
We’ll Always Have Paris
It’s been fifty years since the exciting events of May 1968 in France that shook the country to its foundations. It is still inspiring to remember the widespread revolt of high school and university students, and then workers, that erupted throughout the country, leading to the largest general strike in French history. These events brought society to a stop, temporarily transforming daily life, and posing the possibility of a complete social revolution. The 1968 turmoil in France was part of a worldwide upsurge.
Sep 28, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Intro to Zerzan
Facing the ‘80s: Promise or Collapse?
We perhaps owe John Zerzan a debt of gratitude for the research that has gone into his essay The Promise of the ‘80s, for it graphically demonstrates to us what we have suspected all along—that all is not well with the rule of capital. In fact, the litany of decomposition presented both among the institutions of rule and its subjects is shown to be so widespread and systemic that one can conclude little else than that the rulers will no longer be able to govern as they have, due to the massive erosion of loyalty to the reigning mode of domination.
Dec 13, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Israeli GIs Resist War
Resistance to two years of aggressive war and occupation in Lebanon is growing in the Israeli armed forces. 2,500 reserve officers have formed a group called Yesh Gvul (“There is a Limit/Border”), and have requested not to be sent to Lebanon. Already 130 of their organization have served prison terms for their refusal to serve there.
Aug 19, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Yes, it does often feel like we’re beating our heads against a brick wall. What do we do?
The now-cliched definition of insanity, although it originated with Albert Einstein, is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Do we meet that description? Anarchists fight against racism and there is an upsurge in violence against people of color. We fight the pipelines, and governments roll out more of them. We oppose the patriarchy, but in many ways it is as entrenched as ever. The climate crisis worsens each season and a dynamic fascist movement is on the rise.
Dec 12, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
The photo above of a traffic jam on a Brazilian highway could be a metaphor for life today. A scarred landscape littered with trucks filled with the everyday stuff of commerce going nowhere.
The trucks carrying what are now the necessities of modern society are stalled at a local level but reflect the entire global economy and culture. As the planetary integrated system becomes increasingly complex, so does its capacity for collapse.
May 5, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
This issue’s theme, “What’s Next? Demand the Impossible,” is a challenge to all our imaginations.
We live in a world faced with the scourge of a plague, and in a country that is an armed madhouse with a good portion of its population seemingly gone off the rails with fascist rage and white fear.
What appears in these pages is nothing like a blueprint for where or how to focus our energies. We know well what we don’t want and what doesn’t work. In general, we know that creating alternative communities of resistance is what brings results and can provide a model of the world we desire.
May 9, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Welcome to the fourth Fifth Estate of 2002!!
We have not published four issues in one year since the late 1980s. As much as any of our magazines this year, this edition represents the contribution of many heads, hearts, and hands in our ever-evolving collective.
Although we love the front cover art of May Thistle, its symbology may threaten the penology of the department of corrections in the state of Oregon. According to notices we’ve received from prison officials, anarchism’s classic circle-A is a dangerous gang symbol!
May 23, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Welcome to our Winter 2020 edition. Although there is no specific theme this issue, the totality of our articles affirms a longstanding commitment to the philosophy of anarchism that is now an existential necessity given the political and environmental crises the world faces.
Can a body of ideas, considered impractical by many, and ignored by most, rise to the point where it is powerful enough to challenge centuries old modes of hierarchal rule and ecological destruction?
Feb 28, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Time to Begin!
As we send this issue to the printer, the ghastly Shit Show known as the 2016 American presidential election has not yet concluded, although it will be over when you read this.
While one of the candidates expressed definitively more openly bigoted and authoritarian ideas, neither challenged the basic equation of life within the state and capitalism. The horrors of war, racism, environmental collapse, and oppression will continue regardless of the electoral outcome.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
The FE at 50
Just so readers don’t think all of the celebration around the 50th anniversary of publishing has brought forth a bout of hubris in us, let us be clear. Those of us working on the Fifth Estate today know this publication couldn’t have lasted this long without connection to a vibrant tradition and social solidarity from contemporary comrades.
Mar 6, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Throughout 2005, we will celebrate our anniversary by spreading the ideas of revolution that made us notorious to authority and noted by readers everywhere as a consistent, intelligent, and even humorous tool for change.
From the suburban Detroit home of a 17-year-old high school student in 1965, to a gritty, inner-city Cass Corridor basement with an ever-changing revolutionary collective to a remote Tennessee barn of the current communal and editorial core group, the Fifth Estate has remained what the FBI called a voice “supporting the cause of revolution everywhere.”
Oct 21, 2015 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue Intro
When the wind blows against us, there are two distinct choices: either push back and push on against it with ever more resolve, or surrender to the direction in which it’s going.
Undoubtedly, if you are reading this publication, like us, you have decided that resistance must continue regardless of the forces we face. It’s easy to take for granted democratic rights supposedly guaranteed to us, but at critical junctures in U.S. history, those evaporated leaving critics of government at great risk.
Feb 7, 2023 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue Intro
Welcome to another issue of the Fifth Estate Anarchist Review of Books. We haven’t changed our title permanently; just letting readers know what to expect inside this edition. We also haven’t changed our belief that it is direct action in the streets and in the woods, and creating communities of resistance and rebellion that are needed so critically as conditions worsen on almost every level. We read and learn to increase our commitment in our struggles.
May 2, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue Intro
Exciting times for Fifth Estate
At a time when everyone is declaring the death of print media, our magazine, now in its 47th year, is not only alive, but prospering. We have many new subscribers, new staff, more renewals, increased newsstand sales, and an exciting new look. We ran out of our last issue on Revolution and are increasing our press run for this edition.
Aug 5, 2013 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Is the government ready to say Fuck The Draft?
Since its origin 55 years ago, the Fifth Estate has always supported draft refusal and mutinies among the troops as the best tactics along with anti-war mass demonstrations for stopping the empire’s endless wars.
However, a bipartisan bill is currently before the U.S. Congress that would abolish the requirement for draft registration and related penalties. This is welcome, but the impetus for it isn’t a sudden commitment to peace or a realization that conscription is slavery.
Mar 26, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
It’s all connected
Growing numbers of people compelled to flee their homes because of ongoing devastations of wars, cataclysmic climate change, and intractable environmental crises! It’s not a Hollywood sci-fi horror movie—it’s the world of industrialization and capitalism. As the system grinds on, it continues to multiply threats to all living creatures on the planet.
Jul 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
It’s Raining Stockbrokers
Wall Street Stock Market Collapse of 1929
On the day it rained stockbrokers, meteorologists debated the causes of this strange, nearly unprecedented weather. One claimed that stockbrokers represented a dense, heavy element which would continue to fall, down through the Earth and out the other side, eventually creating monstrous, irrepressible explosions in the center of the planet as they returned along their trajectory with the force of gravity and met themselves coming back from the other direction. Another said that there was nothing unusual and nothing to be concerned about. Stockbrokers rained every fifty years in regular, predictable cycles. Still, another denied that it was raining stockbrokers at all, and attributed the sightings of plummeting stockbrokers to a form of mass hysteria.
Nov 24, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
It Takes a Team...
Your Police and You
“A top notch job” was the way Detroit Police Commissioner Johannes Spreen characterized the attack by 289 of his pigs on a peacefully assembled crowd at Cobo Hall last October.
Spreen said the blame for the clash following an appearance of Gov. George Wallace should be put on “those who provoke, those who instigate, those hurlers of missiles and invectives...”
Sep 21, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
“I wouldn’t want my son to see this...”
(by the Fifth Estate Creep Scene Editor)
Creep scenes abound from the Detroit area to Florida as power-authority heads try to suppress the Fifth Estate.
In Royal Oak, the Gas Company, at 290 W. Ten Mile Road, a head shop run by Andy Gingold, has had its request for an operating permit denied by the Royal Oak city commission solely on the grounds that he is selling “lewd and lascivious literature,” i.e., our paper.
Apr 2, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
anon.
J20 Defendants
Despite Court Defeat, Government Plans to Continue Trials for Fifty-nine
Federal prosecutors announced in January the dismissal of charges against 129 J20 defendants for actions against the Trump inauguration in Washington DC on January 20, 2017.
Fifty-nine people are still facing seven felony charges each, punishable by over 60 years in prison. While the government alleges that these people damaged property, planned the protests, or had knowledge of the black bloc tactic, the case has always been about political repression and expanding the state’s ability to stifle resistance.
Mar 3, 2018 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jail John Now!
Fifth Estate Parody of The Sun
THE SUN, Volume 3, Issue 18
(3 pages with 33-page ad supplement)
FLASH!
A high-energy, killer rally to “JAIL JOHN NOW!” has been announced by the Rainbow People’s Party (RPP) Minister of Information to be held at Ann Arbor’s Chrysler Arena on the eve of the Zenta New Year, Oct. 31. This monster event will climax several months of dynamite work by people of the Rainbow Nation to get RPP Chairman John Sinclair back into the Michigan prison system where he can best serve the people.
Sep 19, 2013 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jane Fonda & the Anti-Aircraft Gun
So intense was the air war against Vietnam, known as Operation Rolling Thunder, that more bomb tonnage was dropped on this small nation than the combined total expended during World War II.
These raids contributed heavily to the enormous Vietnamese casualties ranging up to four million dead, numbers which dwarf those suffered by the U.S. invaders.
Mar 7, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jefferson Airplane Lands in City
Nearly 4,000 young people jammed Into the Ford Auditorium on Friday June 30 to hear the Jefferson Airplane.
Three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine people enjoyed themselves.
The Detroit News didn’t.
Their reporter came on like a middle aged Brenda Starr equipped only with platinum hair and a super-hostile attitude towards rock and roll, folk-rock and Grace Slick:
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jeff “Free” Luers Freed!
Since the punitive government witch hunt of the Green Scare has commenced, we usually have only apprehensions, snitching, and sentencing on which to report. But, this time it’s good news!
Jeff “Free” Luers, political prisoner and environmental activist, was released from prison in Oregon after serving nine and a half years. Luers was originally sentenced in 2001 to twenty-two years and eight months for the politically motivated arson of three SUVs at an auto dealership in Eugene.
Mar 29, 2014 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jobs or else
Is Detroit headed for the sort of scenes that have gone down in Pittsburgh and Chicago around demands by blacks for more construction jobs?
The NAACP and the Urban League of Detroit have announced plans to work with the construction industry in an effort to include more blacks and other minorities in the building trades.
Jul 16, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Joel Silvers
Detroit artist & filmmaker dies at 72
Friend and comrade, Joel Silvers, died unexpectedly at age 72 in Detroit on December 8, 2018.
Joel was present when the Fifth Estate was launched in 1965 and at the 2015 festivities that celebrated the 50th anniversary of this publication.
As an award-winning filmmaker, he produced a documentary of interviews with some of the early staff, a trailer of which is available on our web site, FifthEstate.org, “Enduring Voices: 50 years of the Fifth Estate.”
Mar 24, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
CrimethInc.
Join us in the Streets
Before it’s Too Late...
The demonstrations against the war, though they were probably the biggest and most widespread demonstrations in the history of the world, were ignored by our so-called representatives. That’s right: neither our votes, nor our letters to our congressmen, nor the opinions of our allies, nor our efforts to show our numbers in the streets have had any influence on their decisions.
Jul 20, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Joseph Déjacque Bicentennial Conference
</strong> Sunday, December 11, 2022
The Joseph Déjacque Bicentennial Conference is being held in recognition of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of this major nineteenth-century communist anarchist political theorist and visionary utopian writer. It is sponsored by La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology and Yes We Cannibal, with the support of the Anarchist Political Ecology Group and the Dialectical Social Ecology Group.
Nov 23, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Judge Crockett Statement
Editors’ Note: The following is a public statement on the New Bethel incident released by George W. Crockett, Judge, Recorder’s Court, Detroit.
The distortions of fact and the confusion over this Court’s actions in the recent events at New Bethel Church compel me to make certain facts clear. I am personally deeply affronted by reports and stories which have clearly and deliberately twisted the truth and the law in this matter.
Jun 8, 2022 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Judi Bari bombing case to go to trial
Three hundred and fifty supporters of two Earth First! forest defense activists rallied outside the San Francisco FBI field office May 24 on the tenth anniversary of the day when a shrapnel-stuffed pipe bomb exploded in a car driven by Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, crippling her.
Mar 22, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Judi Bari Lives!
“My ideals will live long after I am dead.”
—Emma Goldman
In a moving memorial to his dear friend and comrade Judi Bari (in the March 1997 Earth First! Journal), Darryl Cherney writes that he was plagued by a number of unsettling signs before her death, including the crash of an enormous old-growth redwood to the forest floor on a windless night near the Earth First! base camp in Myers Flat, California. That redwood turned out to be Judi Bari, whose death meant not only a terrible loss to her children and her family, to her community and the movement, but to the earth.
Oct 20, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
June 11 International Day of Solidarity with Eric McDavid & Marie Mason
World-wide events organized to show solidarity with Marie Mason and Eric McDavid, the two longest sentenced environmental prisoners, were an overwhelming success.
Events took place in at least 30 cities across the world including two in New York City, ones in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and San Francisco, but also in places such as Fresno, Calif, Worcester, Mass., Salt Lake City, and Asheville, NC. Internationally, people responded in Toronto, Guelph, Ontario, Montreal, Melbourne, Barcelona, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.
Oct 28, 2013 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Just Motor City News
The League of Revolutionary Black Workers has been participating in elections of UAW locals and found itself confronted with vote fraud when it was clear the union bureaucrats could win in no other way.
At the Chrysler Eldon Avenue gear and axel plant four white company hacks won a recent election although the plant employees are 85% black, as is the local president, who won last year with League support. League leaders attribute the loss to the fact that the ballot box was locked in a police station overnight for “safekeeping” while waiting to be counted the next morning. The group plans to contest the election.
Jan 19, 2024 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Just Seeds
Josh MacPhee of Chicago has been very busy this summer. Touring his stencil graffiti art show to infoshops, cafes, independent art galleries, and even the Allied Media Conference, selling prints from five to fifty dollars to raise funds for a book of collected stencils from around the country.
MacPhee facilitates “Just Seeds,” organizing artists from all walks, styles, and artistic backgrounds to create beautiful works of educational art entitled “Celebrate Peoples History.” Each poster is a highly unique tribute, honoring radical speakers, thinkers, organizers, agitators, and events. This is the history our textbooks seemed to have “left out.” The series pays homage to such prominent figures as Harriet Tubman, Augusto Sandino, and Fred Hampton. Shining light on events like Little Bighorn, the Stonewall riots, and the Battle of Homestead. This project continues to grow as new artists approach MacPhee with new ideas.
Nov 20, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Keep the 2nd Coming
The Second Coming, a new underground newspaper at Eastern Michigan University, is locked in battle with the administration of that school over its right to distribute on campus.
University president Harold Sponberg (called the Phantom by students) is largely responsible for the hysteria, having freaked out after seeing issue number two of the Second Coming.
Sep 2, 2019 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Kelly Pflug-Back Sentenced — Issue 388
The two accounts below of the sentencing of Kelly Pflug-Back, illustrate the gulf between alternative and mainstream journalism. The writing in the latter comes from Canada’s Toronto-based, right-wing, The National Post.
Kelly Pflug-Back sentenced to 15 months for attacks in Toronto
by Fifth Estate
Fifth Estate writer and editor, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, was sentenced by a Canadian court July 19 to 15 months in prison for militant actions carried out by a Black Bloc contingent during protests at the 2010 Toronto G20 meeting.
Apr 22, 2013 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Kids—say no to Government
Media manufactured crises come and go so quickly these days that it is often hard to comment on one before it has disappeared from immediate concern. At the height of frenzy about a particular issue—whether it is terrorism, the space shuttle crash or most recently, drugs—the unitary message of power appears to command all thought. Nothing seems to exist outside of the official messages: we are all portrayed as angry or sad or worried.
Oct 18, 2020 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Killer Cop’s Appeal Fails
All of a sudden the media has discovered police brutality after years of denying its existence. The spotlight on this public secret came as a result of a particularly hideous incident of police torture recently by New York City cops who rival their L.A. counterparts for racism, brutal behavior and right wing politics.
Feb 14, 2016 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
King Marchers Convicted
Fr. James Markunas of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church has been convicted of illegally marching last April during the so-called “emergency” following Martin Luther King’s assassination. (See Fifth Estate, April 16–30, 1968.)
Markunas was arrested April 7, 1968 with 107 others while attempting to march to the Royal Oak City Hall in memory of Dr. King. A ban had been put on all gatherings of over three people by then Gov. Romney.
Sep 23, 2021 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Know Thyself
Women talk about masturbation
A few of us got together to talk, as women, about masturbation, because we felt that it is an important and much-neglected topic. Here is the resulting conversation:
Carol: I can’t remember ever masturbating when I was a child. And I know I see little girls do it alt the time!
Joanne: I did it a lot when I was a little girl, with a stuffed elephant I had, and I always had this feeling that my mother was watching me. I knew it was the wrong thing to do. I used to look for her feet under the door. Then I just stopped. When I was five or six, I started believing the chastity thing—and thinking that sex and those parts of your body were nasty.
Sep 11, 2015 Read the whole text...